Sweden shocked at the emergence of a far right party into mainstream politics. The anti-immigration Democrats now hold the balance of power in Sweden after the centre-right government failed to win an outright majority.

And the Islamist sympathizers on the left are livid.

UK DAILY MAIL Unemployment and the flood of foreigners into the south of the country have been blamed for the rise of the group, which began life as a faction of skinheads.

Now the party will enter Parliament for the first time, with 20 seats. Despite denials they are racist, both main blocs have ruled out working with them.

A preliminary count showed Fredrik Reinfeldt’s coalition winning 172 seats in the 349-member parliament. The Social Democrat-led centre-left opposition was set to secure 157.

Muslims burning Swedish flag

The Democrats’ leader, Jimmie Akesson, won 4.6 per cent of the vote and told chanting supporters: ‘Today we have written political history together, I think that’s fantastic.’

Analysts had said before Sunday’s election that a hung parliament, with Reinfeldt’s centre-right Alliance coalition having no overall majority, would unsettle investors and the currency duly weakened in trading this morning.

‘An uncertain parliamentary situation is always negative for a currency, but the market pretty quickly goes back to focusing on other things,’ Handelsbanken analyst Claes Mahlen said.’I don’t think the view of Sweden will change dramatically’

‘If this outcome stands we will have a scenario that most Swedish voters wanted to avoid – that is that we have a xenophobic party holding the balance of power,’ said Ulf Bjereld, a political scientist at Gothenburg University. H/T Susan K